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Lighting setup: Simple long exposure LED portraits

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Long-exposure photography has been around as long as photography itself, but it’s had a tentative relationship with its audience over the years.

20+ years ago when I was shooting analogue film, long exposure was fairly common, even though it was pretty risky to do without the instant feedback of seeing the resulting image. Then digital came along and with it, a brand new world of creative options opened up in the form of Photoshop, consequently, some of the more traditional creative skills fell by the wayside.

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Here’s what happens when AI writes your photoshoot setup

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Here at DIYP, we’ve had a lot of fun playing with ChatGPT and asking it all sorts of stuff. Udi asked it to make a PRD for a perfect mirrorless camera, with some interesting results. I recently started testing it for crochet patterns and I have yet to make some stuff from AI-generated instructions. But worry not, the articles are still 100% human-generated. :)

Photographer Gavin Hoey wanted to know if ChatGPT could write a video script in his own style and give him instructions for a photoshoot. In this fun video from Adorama TV, Gavin shows you what the chatbot came up with.

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Lighting Setup: How to build and use a DIY Scrim in the Studio

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There are quite literally thousands of lighting modifiers on the market today, but which ones are good, which ones should you avoid and… can you make some of them yourself?

In this article I want to discuss: what a scrim is, what a scrim does, and how you can make a very simple scrim for yourself if you like the look it provides.

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I am a studio photographer and I don’t want to use flash anymore

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As a passionate photographer, I started my journey years ago by transforming my bedroom into a DIY studio. With nothing but a bucket of paint and a wall, I created a simple yet effective backdrop for my shoots. Due to financial constraints, I began with speedlights. But as I grew in skill and experience, I added three studio 100w heads to my arsenal.

While I was always fascinated by complex lighting setups, for some inexplicable reason, I never found studio heads to be my favorite. Nevertheless, since they added up as more lights, I kept using them. As time went on, I became more interested in the cinematic aspect of photography. I began experimenting with various light fixtures to use as practicals in my shots. It was during this period that I discovered LED lights, and my interest in them was sparked.

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How to shoot great one-light portraits in a tiny home studio

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Learning to shoot portraits at home is often a struggle. Even when you can convince one of your family members to hop in front of the camera so you can experiment and blast lights at them, you’re often constrained by space. It’s a home. It’s filled with furniture. Even if you can move it out of the way for a couple of hours, you usually don’t get a lot of room to set up and shoot.

In this video, though, Jiggie Alejandrino walks us through his journey, setting up some fantastic portrait lighting in his tiny home studio. Keeping the small space in mind, Jiggie only uses a single light for the setups in this video. But it’s more than just another “here’s how to light a subject with one light” video.

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Here’s how to figure out what size and shape of softbox you should buy

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Very early on in the journey of a photographer’s transition to flash, particularly studio strobes, the first question we find ourselves asking is “what modifiers should I use?” Actually, the first question is probably “what’s a modifier?” which is then followed by the other one. You start to do a little Googling and searching around retailers, and you discover softboxes. There are so many different shapes and sizes out there, though. Which is the right one?

Well, the fact is that there is no objectively right or wrong softbox. They all exist because they’re all useful. They’re just all useful in different ways and each present a different appearance of light only our subject, depending on how you use them. In this video, David Bergman (and Dean Edwards) take an almost 20-minute tour around every size and shape of softbox you can imagine illustrating what they do.

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Lighting setup: How to make projection backgrounds

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I’ve been using projectors in my photoshoots for many, many years now and I’ve been writing about how to utilise the power of projectors in your shoots for nearly as long too.

As I’ve always said, I believe projectors to be one of the most versatile and creative tools we have at our disposal today and they’re becoming more and more accessible as each year passes. So why don’t we see more of them in photoshoots?

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Here’s why you need a sound stage to raise your videos to the next level

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When we think of video, we naturally think of moving images as the main component. Yet a comprehensive study for the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society found that audio quality had a significant influence on how viewers rated a video. In the experiment, the study participants were more likely to dislike a video when the audio quality was poor than a clip with poor image quality. So, to achieve that high-production value feel, many directors opt to hire a sound stage. This allows them to cut out external sounds and gives them higher control (depending on the studio) over the acoustics.

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Follow these five tips to make your first studio shoot less scary

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If you’re used to natural lighting, photographing in a studio for the first time can be overwhelming. If you don’t have a place to play and experiment with artificial lighting, shooting in a studio for the first time is quite intimidating.

But hold on, don’t be afraid. Take a deep breath, relax, and watch this video from  Kayleigh June. In the video, she gives you five excellent tips that will make your first studio visit a way more pleasant, relaxed, and enjoyable experience.

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This is how you use a light meter properly – they’re really not that difficult or scary

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While they were once a fixture in every studio and photographer’s gear bag, light meters seem to have fallen out of fashion ever since digital photography came along. And while it’s true that we now have a lot more options for exposing our shots, the humble light meter can still play a very valuable role in nailing the shot quickly and consistently.

The cost of messing up the exposure of a shot, twiddling some dials and shooting another isn’t as expensive as it was in the film days, light meters can still save you a lot of time and hassle. And in this great video, Daniel Norton walks us through how to use a light meter, along with some tips and tricks to make your life a little easier when using one.

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